


Techie Down

by Madzie2000



Series: There for Him [1]
Category: Dredd (2012)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Techie Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 22:45:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11023161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madzie2000/pseuds/Madzie2000
Summary: Emery Drayk is scanning a sector for trouble when a man quite literally knocks her off of her feet...Clan Techie was lost and Emery was there for him on his brightest and darkest days





	Techie Down

Emery had never seen something so horrible in her life – Peach Trees was finally getting the war that had been coming for years. She had only been a young teen when the Ma-Ma Clan took over and now the bitch was finally being put on a leash... but if she could have it any other way, Emery hoped Madeleine Madrigal was choked by it. Emery listened to the sounds of gunfire and screams, looking up at the higher levels. She just stood in silence, hoping to hear Ma-Ma die at long last, and was lost in her own anticipation, waiting for the dreadful woman’s cry to ring out through the city. When the gunfire stopped, she smirked. Out of nowhere a grown man – at least six feet tall, if not more – came running from the directions of Peach trees and bowled her over, his head smacking into the concrete and knocking him out cold. Emery pulled her cell from a pocket and called her Clan Leader.

“Longsword, you there?” Emery said quietly into her cell.

“Go ahead Cutlass,” Longsword replied.

“We have an escapee from Peach Trees,” she said with a knowing tone “I think we should take him back to the Forge.”

“Copy that Cutlass,” Longsword said with a smile in his voice “I’ll have Rapier try and find you, but without you down here at the Forge that’s almost impossible.”

“I think the name's really stuck now Longsword,” Emery replied “We should keep the name Brass Sword Clan – our initials say “BS” and that makes us the Bull Shit Clan.”

“Good one Cutlass,” Longsword breathed, trying to take in oxygen after his small fit of laughter “I’ll send Xav – uh, sorry – Rapier to your location now.”

Emery heard the line go dead and she pocketed her cell quickly in case a passerby saw it. She let her eyes fall on the man again, staring at him through her band shades. They were just like sunglasses, except they ran all the way around her eyes in a rectangular band and fitted around her ears with custom suction-cup technology she herself had designed. They hid what she considered a deformity.

 

Some Time Later...

 

Longsword and Rapier had left Emery in with the mystery man and she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. The two older men had agreed that seeing a feminine face was a better choice than seeing that of a man despite her protests. If he had gotten the injuries across his bodies from Ma-Ma, then this was definitely a poorer choice. Then again, Emery doubted that she looked enough like Ma-Ma to scare him. His eyes were red and puffy, so she took to the recesses of her mind to guess about what had caused this turn of events. She even began listing them in her head to make her waiting time fly by. Longsword or Rapier would pass by every twenty minutes or so to make sure nothing had happened to her and Emery felt like she finally belonged with someone. Her parents had been an odd couple; her father was an upper-class technician and engineer while her mother was a middle-class seamstress. Her father had crossed through Sectors to see her and eventually he had to leave them to avoid being found out by his own parents – they frowned upon people in the lesser areas of the world and it made Emery sick. How could people be so judgemental? They were all still human for crying out loud. A small groan brought Emery back to the situation at hand. The man on the mattress next to her opened his eyes quite suddenly and sat bolt upright, staring at her with a mixture of fear and confusion.

“Hi,” Emery said with a smile “I’m Emery. You’re at the Forge. My Clan helped me bring you here so you could get off the streets.”

“Where is Ma-Ma?” the man said in a high-pitched, almost adolescent voice.

“Madeleine Madrigal was killed by some guy named Dredd who deals with thugs,” Emery said as she reached a hand out to sit it on his shoulder.

He suddenly slapped it away and began shivering.

“Hey,” Emery said soothingly “I’m not gonna hurt you; none of us are. I was just worried about you and figured you’d need somewhere to stay.”

The man muttered something that sounded like the word ‘sorry’ and picked up a cup that was sitting on the table to Emery’s right.

She noticed his hesitation and smiled, saying “Go on, I left it there for you.” 

He glanced down at it and took a small sip, letting the cool liquid burn at his parched throat.

“You got a name?” Emery asked, earning a shake of the head.

“I can’t remember,” he said with a saddened expression that was only made all the more gut-wrenching by his large, blue eyes “She clawed my eyes out and refused to call me anything besides ‘boy’, the bitch.”

“Fair enough,” Emery sighed “She’s the reason I have these.”

Emery pointed to her band shades and the man tilted his head to one side slightly, her minds eye seeing him as nothing more than an inquisitive puppy. It was probably the most adorable expression she 

“Did you make those yourself?” he asked after a moment of staring.

“Yes,” Emery said as she released the small suction pads from behind her ears “If I didn’t have them on I’d look just like you.”

The man’s face grew pale when he saw Emery’s violently purple eyes staring back at him, bulging from her eye sockets just like his.

“You’re not the only one she’s blinded,” Emery said as she swiped at her pale pink eyelids.

“Why aren’t your eyes red?” the man said despite looking like he was at death’s door.

“I had someone develop pills to get rid of the infection,” Emery said as she stood and took a seat on the edge of the bed “If you want I could give you the same?”

“That’d be great... Emery was it?” he said with an awkward smile.

“If you ever want to talk I’m right h – ”

Emery was cut off when the man wrapped his long lanky arms around her and sobbed into her shoulder. While she wasn’t accustomed to human contact considering her rather lacklustre upbringing, but Emery crumbled and slithered her arms around the man’s waist. For a moment Emery expected him to come to his senses and apologise for such a ridiculous outburst, but he simply clung to her as if she would disappear if he let go. She knew he’d been through hell - that much was certain. The sobbing stopped after a few minutes and Emery absent-mindedly ran a hand through his fiery orange hair, finding that the tense muscles had loosened in his back. After what felt like an eternity, the man moved back and held Emery at arm’s length, hanging his head between them.

“I’m sorry,” he said he said flatly.

Emery sat a hand on his shoulder and he lifted his head to see her smiling at him. She was practically an angel in this hell he called his life. She was one of the few people who had cared for him. Surely his family and friends loved him too? While he was momentarily lost in thought, Emery pressed a kiss to his cheek and he blushed furiously, making her laugh.

“Aw, did I make you blush,” she teased.

“Piss off,” he grumbled with an awkward smile.

Someone standing in the doorway cleared their throat and Emery and the man jumped out of their skin.

“So... you’re the guy that got away from Peach Trees then?” Longsword said with a grin “You nearly took out our Clan Technician over here.”

The man stared at Emery and then looked back.

“I was the Clan Techie for Peach Trees but Ma-Ma forced me to stay on,” the man said slowly, his mind drifting back to the day he’d lost his eyes “That’s how I ended up with these.”

Before the man could say anymore to upset himself, Emery decided he should know the names of the people he may be working with for the foreseeable future.

“That’s Elrin Rayel, our Clan Leader in Brass Swords,” Emery explained “His codename is Longsword. Our weapons specialist Xavix Myles is Rapier and I’m Cutlass. We just have to give you a cool sword-related name and then we’re one member up. We call our base here the Forge.”

The man smiled and looked down at the floor.

“How about Dagger?” he said quickly “I know it’s not a sword, but since I’m probably the tallest I’d just enjoy the irony.”

Emery snorted back a laugh and Elrin just shook his head.

“You’re just as bad as her,” he sighed.

As Elrin walked away, Emery stood up and decided to give the Clan Techie a tour of the Forge. Maybe all he needed to remember himself was something that could jog his memory.

 

One Month Later...

 

Emery was ecstatic. For the past month she and Dagger had been gathering intel on people who could have survived the Peach Trees incident, but so far, none of them were on his side. The people who were left had gone into hiding or were murdered so that they couldn’t speak about the incident and they were looking for Dagger. For the past six days Elrin had been out and about with Xavix, hunting down Ma-Ma’s rogue henchmen while Dagger stayed back with Emery to keep an eye on them by hacking into security cameras around Sector 13. Today they might have finally gotten a lead on Dagger’s identity; the last five or six times the men refused but today something changed.

“Longsword there’s someone coming up the alleyway from South position,” Emery said through a microphone “You still up Rapier?”

Emery heard a few gunshots and received a simple “We’re alive Cutlass,” in reply from Rapier.

Emery’s screen suddenly flickered and went black – communication to the two men was suddenly shut off.

“Shit!” Emery said loudly, bringing Dagger’s attention to her screen “We’ve lost them.”

“Fuck,” Dagger whispered under his breath, pushing her chair to one side so he could reboot the computer and hack back into the cameras using shortcuts he’d been teaching Emery.

“We can’t get them back, can we?” Emery said when she saw the strained expression on his face.

Dagger leaned back and slammed a fist into the desk, making Emery jump. She put a hand on the handgun in her pocket, becoming rather twitchy. He said nothing and sat back in his chair, most likely noting that her hand was seated comfortably in the pocket he knew the gun to be hidden in.

Just when Emery had gathered the courage to speak, he stopped her before she could start.

“They tried to help me and now they’re dead,” he said bleakly “And I’ve left you without any friends... sounds like me.”

“If I have no friends what does that make you?” Emery grinned, pulling out her handgun.

Dagger froze up, but when Emery placed the gun on the desk he relaxed enough to move back to her screen.

“We’re back up,” he said to Emery, who was rushing through video feeds for any sign of Rapier and Longsword.

“You need start checking feeds too; try something nearer to the Forge while I try around the area they were in,” Emery said as she scanned through the feeds and waited a few seconds on each.

Dagger only nodded, quickly grabbing her shoulder.

“They’re right outside!” he half shouted, leaving the feed up.

While Dagger ran to the entranceway, Emery leaned over and saw Elrin being carried by Xavix and she knew what had happened: they’d been hacked. Emery dropped the headset and ran to the entranceway to find Xavix and Dagger walking through the hallway, holding Elrin between them. Emery went ahead of them and opened up Dagger’s bedroom door, letting them lay him down while she ran to grab their first aid kits and some damp rags. He was going to die, but he didn’t have to die in pain. As soon as she got back to the room, there were two things she didn’t expect to see; the first was Elrin sitting up in the bed, but the second was a big smile on Dagger’s face. As she entered the room she considered that she had been put into a coma and this was one giant dream world she’d created. That’s all that could explain what she was seeing.

“Hey Emery,” Elrin said from the bed casually “Did we scare you?”

 Emery’s mouth fell open and suddenly she flew into a rage.

“Scared me? Oh no, gave me a fucking heart attack more like! I thought you were dead Elrin!”

For a moment all of the men were silent and Emery sat the equiptment on the floor, walking over to them.

“What happened out there?” she said uncertainly as she looked over at Dagger “And why does he look like he just got laid?”

Dagger and Xavix laughed madly while Elrin shook his head.

“He knows what his name is after we caught the remainder of Ma-Ma’s Clan. They’re now officially an extinct species.”

Emery quickly hugged Elrin, who only had a gash in his side rather than the bullet wound she had been expecting – and passed the medical supplies to Xavix.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Emery said, quickly leaving the room.

Dagger muttered an excuse about needing to use the bathroom before following Emery out to the roof of the Forge. She was looking out over the city, her silence impossibly filling the air between them.

“Emery?” he said cautiously.

As soon as her hand moved to to wipe at her eyes and she replaced the band shades he knew she’d been crying.

“What is it?” she blurted out “What’s your name?”

“Tell me why you’re crying and I will,” he replied weakly.

He could never be forceful – that wasn’t in his nature – but he was damn well going to try.

“Because now that you know who you are you’ll leave and... I like you a bit more than I should considering I’ve only know you for a month.”

“Rian,” he said with a grin “Rian Malakye.”

“Well then Rian, you’d better get going,” Emery said as her lip twitched the way it usually did when she was sad “I’m sure your family is looking for you.”

“I never had a family,” Rian said flatly “My family was everybody in Peach trees and now they’re all gone. All I’ve got is the Brass Swords.”

Emery began walking toward the door and heard two words.

“And you.”

She was frozen on the spot and couldn’t bring herself to turn the handle.

“You think I haven’t noticed you staring at me when I’m showing you something on the screens downstairs?” Rian asked with a smile “I use my peripheral vision to look at you whenever I get the chance. I’ve never had the chance to say something like this but... want to go on a date?”

Emery couldn’t wipe a smile off her face as she pressed the release button on her shades and dropped them onto the ground, taking a few strands of her long brown hair with it.

“What if I say no?” she said, trying to keep a straight face.

“And miss a catch like me? You must be mad.”

“Yep, I’m mad,” Emery replied with a grin “That’s why I’m saying yes.”

Rian’s face dropped, along with his head. He suddenly perked up when her words sank in. He took two steps (though there was at least six feet between them) and lifted Emery and closed her in a tight hug the way he had when they first met. This time however, he’d physically rather than metaphorically swept her off her feet. He let her down and she sat a hand on his cheek, pressing her lips to his very gently. Apparently he’d been waiting for it for a long time, because Rian had suddenly deepened the kiss and caught her off guard, causing her to pull away. Instead of being awkward she laughed.

“What’s so funny?” he asked worriedly.

“I didn’t realise you could kiss like that... holy shit,” Emery said before laughing again “And here I thought you were the quiet type.”

Rian let himself laugh and Emery stepped back into his arms, running a hand through his long red-orange hair and forcing him to kiss her a second time. He didn’t seem to mind very much.

 

Six Months Later...

 

Rian had surprised Emery by moving his mattress and some blankets and pillow upstairs so they could camp out under the stars and get better acquainted. But that was after a gruelling shift down in the Forge’s trading area. The rules were simple; get the best items to customers with the best trades. They generally traded weaponry and technologies form other Clans, but occasionally – if there was enough stock – they would give people food. Anything that was running out of date they sent off to the homeless shelter a few miles to the eastern edges of Sector 13. Today they had received more food than usual and it had been perfect timing, as it gave Rian more food to work with and more to bribe the boys with to leave for the night.

“Remember what you said about getting laid Emery?” Xavix had joked, earning a glare from Rian, Emery and Elrin simultaneously.

“Oh come on! He’s probably thought about it at least twenty times by now!”

This just made Rian blush and begin to look more like a tomato than a person. Emery had disappeared for the rest of the evening, checking surveillance feeds for crime that might be running rampant. Rian believed that they should aid Judge Dredd in his mission of bringing justice to the people across the Sectors after he was spared thanks to Dredd’s partner Anderson and her unique gift. In the month’s they had gotten to know one another since Rian had asked her out on a date, he had told her about the way they had torn him from the small nook he called a room. Ma-Ma would always stand outside if he wasn’t on duty when she expected for him to be there and threaten to use her nails on other parts of his body is he was late again, hence various scratches and scars across his stomach, face along his arms and one along his back. He hid them by wearing long sleeves and never letting people see him without his clothes off, even if they were men. He was more self-conscious than a teenage girl in Emery’s opinion, but she knew he was sensitive when it came to situations involving any kind of risk. The more she thought about it, the more she thought about dying never knowing what it was like to be in bed with someone... surely he hadn’t done that already? Who was she kidding; Rian had only kissed her because he’d asked for a date first. Letting her thoughts melt away, Emery brought herself back into the moment. Rian was leading her up the stairs to the night time picnic he had organised for them. He’d even rigged a tent around his own mattress to give them the opportunity to stargaze comfortably.

“If you go in you get a better view” Rian said with a smile he couldn’t seem to wipe off of his face.

Emery lifted the zipper at the side of the tent and stepped onto the mattress, which seemed well lit. When she looked up, she realised that the roof was made of patches of plastic sewn together so they could see the stars without getting wet or having to leave the mattress.

“How long did it take you to make this?” Emery said as she scanned the sky through the tent’s roof.

“About a week,” Rian said with a smile “I did it during my break when I disappeared and said my eyes were bothering me or that I’d forgotten those pills.”

“But you didn’t do that for just one week,” Emery said with a suspicious yet amused smile “You do that every few days.”

“The time I spent on it added up to a week smartass,” he said before pushing her down into a seated position on the mattress.

Emery expected him to make a move but instead Rian pulled her toward him, pressing his chest against her back. He kissed her cheek and they sat in silence, waiting for the buildings around them to shut down their lights – a rule put in place by law to avoid power shortages that happened in their particular area of Sector 13. This had been little of an issue for the Brass Swords, as they ran most of their cooking and lighting on large batteries or human-driven generators. Most of their clientele also brought along flashlights when they stayed open late on the weekends. Rian had his arms around Emery’s stomach and she had lain hers over the top, not noticing that he was playing with her hair until she turned her head and he ripped out a couple of strands.

“So – ouch – what the hell was that?”

“Sorry, had my hand in your hair,” he muttered shyly.

Emery turned to face him and smiled.

“I forgot to thank you for dinner, didn’t I?” she said with a smile.

“Yeah, but it was hopeless anyway,” Rian said glumly “We only had chicken sandwhiches.”

“Well chicken’s hard to come by down this end of the Sector, even on a good week,” Emery said as she threaded his fngers through his.

“I appreciate the effort you went through to get the ingredients,” she said, hoping to clarify why she was so impressed.

“Must be my puppy eyes,” he said with a small smile.

Emery smiled back and removed her band shades, placing them carefully in the furthest corner. Rian knew exactly what it meant and he pulled her by her hands toward him as he leant forward, their lips meeting halfway. Despite their difference in height, nothing ever became awkward when they made out – though of course they kept it to themselves and didn’t let Elrin or Xavix see – because somehow, they could make it work. This time however, Rian seemed to be off-put by something, because he was usually holding her tightly to himself, but he was actually pushing her back.

“Is something wrong?” Emery asked as Rian turned his head.

She tilted her body to follow him and realised that he’d started crying. Emery knew for a fact that – had he been with any other woman in this moment – they would have left him to cry alone. But she knew he’d been through hell and back and come out with scars to prove it. He had the right to cry, even if he was a grown man.

“Talk to me Rian,” Emery said as she put a hand on his shoulder.

“I haven’t...”

Two words in and Emery knew exactly what he wanted to say.

“Neither have I,” she said as her thumb began to brush over the bones in his shoulder.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said a little more clearly as he calmed down “You’ve been through so much...”

“So have you,” Emery said quickly, hoping to shift the subject “Don’t think I don’t know the strain going back to being Clan Techie has had on you.”

Rian wiped one of his long sleeves across his eyes and leant down to sit his head on Emery’s shoulder. She sat a hand in Rian’s hair and kissed the top of his head.

“You’re not used to love either... I can tell.”

Rian slid his arms around Emery and she pulled at the hem of his shirt, catching his attention. She lowered her voice, forcing herself to sound seductive. Somehow, it worked.

“When was the last time someone saw you without your clothes on Rian?” she whispered in his ear.

Rian slowly moved back so that he could see the cheeky smirk on Emery’s face.

“Years,” he said shakily.

Emery looked over his form and decided to make these moments last. She fiddled with the hem of his shirt and slowly inched it up over his stomach, stopping after only a whole inch of his ivory skin was visible.

“You trust me, don’t you?” she asked timidly.

Rian nodded and as Emery pushed him back against the blankets, he didn’t regret leaving Peach Trees. In fact, he didn’t think he ever would. Knowing someone loved him enough to offer themselves this wholeheartedly made him smile more than the twisted wire trees he used to make and leave on his desk. Emery was like those trees – she was his only joy.

**Author's Note:**

> The next sad soul has been chosen:
> 
> Dean Winchester


End file.
